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26 September 2016

It's tempting to say more about the trip to Oxford than the game, just as it was more tempting to stay in the pub (Beerd, on George Street) than to get the bus, the slow, slow bus, to the Kassam Stadium and my lofty seat offering an excellent view of the car park.

The first 45 minutes didn't help, don't help. A fairly frantic opening saw Charlton pressing for about 5 minutes, then Declan Rudd making an excellent save before the game subsided into a low quality affair, Charlton ever more defensive and Oxford unable to make any clear chances.

Half time came along with its village fete style entertainment featuring a man in drag (on a stag, was his excuse) and his best man trying to catch a football in a wheelie bin. It was both less and more amusing than it sounds. Generally their efforts were about as successful as the two teams' had been.

The second half promised more of the same. Charlton's goal came from a penalty, one of the clearest and most unnecessary handballs I've ever seen, and was confidently put away by Johnnie Jackson. Charlton, particularly after Ricky Holmes came on, pressed forward more, overstretched and let Oxford equalise. It was a pretty good game from then onwards but both sides didn't look particularly likely to score and didn't.

A packed bus, a slow, slow bus, took us back to town and a packed train - three coaches, GWR? Who do you think you are, Southeastern? - got me back to London.

It looks like this might be the last game I'll see for a while. All the away games next month are problematic for me in their own way so perhaps I'll try the non-league experience again.

23 September 2016

The least expected thing was that Roland Duchatelet turned up in SE7. Or SE9 at any rate, when he attended a meeting of the Target 20k group at Sparrows Lane (we think - but even the venue hasn't been officially disclosed).

Completely predictable was that he'd say something stupid, probably involving a percentage figure. And so he did, pointing out that Charlton represents about 1.5% of his interests, so he can't give the club any more time than he has. When you think of the way he has used the 1.5% so far - appointing Katrien Meire, listening to Thomas Driessen, selling Yann Kermorgant, sacking Chris Powell, appointing then sacking Bob Peeters, Guy Luzon and Karel Fraeye, writing the notorious Statement {...} - you can see he's been busy and perhaps we should be grateful he hasn't given the club more of his valuable, poisonous time.

The ball's now in Katrien's court. She's got to come up with a ridiculous statement involving the figure 1%.

Maybe it will represent the amount of deliberation by the T20k group that isn't confidential. The anonymous representative of the group said today that most of the discussions are confidential and the rest is circulated, but he didn't say where.

@LauraCY1 minutes are taken but are mostly confidential, anything that is not confidential we distribute

Which isn't very satisfactory. No-one seems to have ever seen details of the group's discussions. What are they discussing and why is it so secret?

I imagine they spend most of their time eating biscuits and laughing at the sheer absurdity of a target of 20,000 attendance in the present circumstances. Then Katrien Meire presents her lastest big idea, and they all have another good laugh. (If this isn't what happens, the group can easily refute it by releasing some minutes.)

It's been clear for some time that her main idea is to give away tickets to anyone who'll take them: local residents, schools and other groups. I suspect that what's being covered up is how badly that's working and the lack of any other plan. Or to put it another way, Katrien's incompetence.

While it's never been clear what Duchatelet's motivation is, it's increasingly obvious that Katrien is using the club to advance her career. For her it's important that any failure is unreported. Why is a group of fans colluding in this?

03 September 2016

You don't need to know the details but a "transport police incident on the line near Romford" this morning meant that I had the afternoon unexpectedly free, and so I decided to support non-league day with a visit to the Whyteleafe Stadium, where Walton Casuals were playing against Greenwich Borough in the FA Cup preliminary round.

I feel like I should know more about Greenwich Borough as they're relatively local, but I don't even know where they play. According to a flag I saw today they call themselves the Pride of SE9, which narrows it down, but is honestly one of the most modest claims you could ever read. Recently they've signed Bradley Pritchard, and while I don't share a certain fellow blogger's total devotion to him, I did appreciate his performances for Charlton. But he wasn't playing, so really I was a neutral at the match.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable game. Greenwich took a quick two-goal lead and were well worth it for most of the first half. On 40 minutes, though, Walton got back into it as Greenwich eased off. And in the second half Walton stormed it, outplaying their visitors and thoroughly deserved their 80th minute winner. They go into the draw for the next round and though I've no intention of doing a "road to Wembley", I'll look out for them.
They are currently guests at Whyteleafe while their own ground is redeveloped, and their hosts also won today, so there's a possibility of a landlord and tenant derby.
The ground is small but nice, coping with today's crowd of 71 with plenty of room to spare. It is set in beautiful Surrey suburban countryside. Just opposite there's this very Dickensian front gate to a world of forbidden passions and family intrigues.

So, all in all, a good day out, and I'd recommend to anyone the experience of going to somewhere a bit out of the usual.